Fabian Garcia

My name is Fabian (he/him), and I am a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Social Practice and Transformational Change and International Development Studies collaborative program. My research interests focus on the practices employed by activists to promote the growing recognition of the rights of nature. I want to examine how activists aim to shift from anthropocentric to biocentric legal frameworks, engage with Indigenous cosmologies, and advance alternative conceptualizations of well-being that transform attitudes toward society and the more-than-human world.

I hold degrees in Environment and Resource Management, International Studies, and Education from the University of Toronto and the Catholic University in Quito, Ecuador, the country where I grew up. I joined the Ecuadorian Foreign Service in 2006, which led me to live and work in Egypt, Germany, and the United States, including a position at the United Nations in New York, where I worked on social, humanitarian, and cultural issues.

I was drawn to the SOPR program because of its interdisciplinary and innovative approach, its emphasis on justice and community-engaged scholarship, and the opportunity to critically engage with the unsettling nature of change. I was also eager to study international development, making the collaborative program at UofG a perfect fit. Joining SOPR has provided me with wonderful opportunities, such as contributing to the Engendering Disability Inclusive Development (EDID-GHDI) partnership by supporting the Leadership Team and the Disability and Development Community of Practice. I have also become a member of the Grounded & Engaged Theory Lab, which supports empirical research methodologies and socially engaged studies that connect theorizing with people’s lived experiences.

I currently live in Oakville, on the Treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, with my family: Ana, Daniel, and Alex, who have always supported my decision to pursue (and complete!) a PhD. In my spare time, I enjoy writing fiction and playing chess. I have published two Spanish-language short story collections, Casa de fieras (2016) and El ojo de agua (2019). My debut novel, Madness, All Over Again, will be released in 2025.